Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund Grants

Phase 1

Over 16 weeks from March - July 2020, our team issued 420 grants totaling $3.3 million thanks to the incredible generosity of our donors: 
  • Immediate Response: Awarded weekly, these grants were our primary means of getting support where it was needed most to respond to emergency needs. In total, we received and reviewed more than 500 funding requests from across the borough, with the goal of responding to each request within a week of receipt. Ultimately, we provided more than $2 million in immediate aid to support the essential work of 214 nonprofit organizations. 
     
  • Sustainability Enhancement: In addition to Immediate Response grants, we distributed $873,000 to provide unsolicited general operating support to 75 current foundation grantees across all of our portfolios to continue their critical work during the social and economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
     
  • #BrooklynGives on Giving Tuesday: When the global Giving Tuesday campaign announced #GivingTuesdayNow, an emergency day of giving for COVID-19 relief on May 5, 2020, we activated our giving platform and committed to matching up to $2,500 in donations to all Immediate Response grantees through June 2020. More than 147 organizations received a total of $363,831 from the Fund to match donations. 

 

Phase 2

The barriers and solutions identified through our Brooklyn Insights 2020 process are shaping over $3 million in new grants from the Brooklyn COVID-19 Response Fund’s second phase:

  • Community-led Social Change Grants: We are providing $2.5 million over five years to provide for organizations addressing systemic injustice and structural oppression in Brooklyn through advocacy, community organizing and power building, and community collaborations through coalitions.
     
  • Immediate Response: We are awarding $291,000 for renewals of select Phase 1 Immediate Response grants to support organizations providing urgent and ongoing direct relief to communities in Brooklyn to alleviate needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including anti-Asian bias and violence, food insecurity, and lost wages.
     
  • Community Health Outreach & Support Grants: We are committing $250,000 to help grassroots nonprofits provide access to culturally relevant, medically accurate COVID-19 education, outreach, and navigation support for COVID-19 related health services.